Sunday, February 28, 2010

We brought home 12 little banana seedlings recently. Ros and Din are staying in one of the residential area in Sitiawan , Perak. Rose is Kakdah's younger sister. They have three clumps of pisang tanduk, laden with fruits. Pisang tanduk is a popular banana, which is a delicacy when fried. The locals love pisang goreng as snack.

I choose two locations for them to grow in Putrajaya... the other 10 seedlings are left under the shade of papaya as reserves just in case the two fail to make it. Its going to be a year long adventure with this banana. What strike me most about this banana is that, it produces little babies only when it is fruiting, unlike our wild banana in the garden which keep on producing babies around them, forming a dense cluster.

I begin to understand their likes and dislikes after more than 2 years keeping the wild banana. They love; fertile and wet soil, with lots of organic matter and mulch, steady moisture and a little bit of shade. But they hate: strong gust of wind, extreme variation of temperature and if left alone with no other plants nearby.

Pisang tanduk is one plant at a time, whereas wild banana stays in a dense cluster, just like rhinoceros which love staying solo and elephants in a herd.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

It has been a month since the day Bilbo arrived. The tropical Putrajaya must have been A LOT greener than he thought. As a gardening gnome and mascot, he must go on. A real diplomat he is... I assemble 6 posts to feature Bilbo while he is here. Today is the seventh post on Bilbo and he is ready to declare where to go next. We roll small pieces of paper with names on.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Marigolds seem to be growing forever. Little yellow dots appear tirelessly adding colour and character to our vegetable garden. Marigolds used to be regularly featured in this blog, but now they are about to go. That branch is the last to stand.... they are nearing the end.

But where is the bulb? It is too early to form or they simply refuse to bulge?

the newer radishes adjusting to replanting.

Radishes are growing bigger now. I am trying to figure where will the beautiful red bulb be, above the ground or in the ground? The earlier radishes are shown in the first picture. The second picture shows younger radishes on a different vegetable bed. I really am going for a continuous supply of radishes. They dont seem to be affected by the hot temperature for now, and I hope they get acclimatised with Malaysia weather away form their motherland Sweden.

Snails are not attracted to these young radishes for now... I hope it will stay that way for a lot longer. But grasshoppers had already left their mark on the leaves...

Kakdah agrees to the idea to explore more on container gardening. We end up purchasing 6 medium size and 3 small size containers or ceramic pots. With gardening soils, the purchase totaled RM60.00. We already have a few bought last year..., but getting more pots offers bigger freedom in vegetable gardening. Vegetables are so pampered that any change in weather will weaken them somehow. So container gardening get round the changing weather... We can always bring them in if storm is coming!! and away from the scorching heat if it is too excessive....

Grasshoppers which love veggies so much, live among the grasses and little bushes,

and having containers closer to the house or at the porch with adequate sunlight

can more or less gurantee pest free greens. That's what we intend to do... But we still grow veggies on vegetable bed, to continue the experiential learning.

Gardening tips regularly mention about putting down stakes early before the roots start to spread far. So, early staking will reduce damage to the tender tomato roots. We did just that. Just for a change we used white electrical conduits. A little bit out of place, with our current organic gardening drive. Bamboo stakes would suit just nice. Surprisingly the white conduit really add color to our little vegetable garden. It doesn't cost a penny, because it is another of my regular salvage from a friend's construction site....

and now growing even bigger with a new trellis as well. I used bamboo stakes previously, and I thought using other material for trellis would be refreshing.

The plants keep growing, adding more leaves and the leaves are getting bigger and longer. The stems are getting thicker at the base, probably anticipating wind soon. All six are doing fine. The 7th ended up in a container.

The weather is getting very hot now..., little clouds and no rain. I wonder if my tomato plants will be able to withstand the increasing heat. By the look of it, they will brave through.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

An attempt at growing white chili is quite interesting. We have been so used to growing ordinary little chili or cili padi which will eventually turn from green to red.

But these are different. They are white... or rather greenish white, and they will never turn green or red. Two plants in pots and two on vegetable bed. These are their first array of fruits. Just for fun, I looked for scientific name of chili. It says Capsicum annuum.

Now the true color is coming very clear. But the blooms are still hidden. As predicted, the color is going to be rich purple. Thanks to Tes , for suggesting the name. Ground Orchid! I googled and found ground orchids, and they are exactly like mine. The other day both of us went over to the Tono's Nursery, 5 minutes away, and to my surprise, ground orchids are not limited to just purple blooms. Over there I saw beautiful white ground orchids sold at RM8.00 per polybag. Tono didn't have purple ground orchids. We then discussed about exchanging the two orchids. We will wait until our purple ground orchids produce more babies.... So this is going to be our first attempt at doing barter trade with Tono.

This butterfly visited our front garden. It looked so much different compared to peacockpansy. and Papilio helenus or swallowtail shown in earlier posts. Its rapid movement made capturing it in photographs very difficult indeed. The butterfly must be enjoying the nectar of mussaenda flava or white wings flower. I missed the vintage pose, only a couple of pictures, mostly hidden behind the leaves and some a little bit blurred. But the basic feature and color were there....

A caterpillar was seen crawling over a stone. It was very quick, a lot quicker than most caterpillars. It has so many minute legs, that probably helped his rapid crawl. Looking at the colorful creature made me wonder if it is related somehow to the butterfly in the earlier pictures. They looked awfully similar.

Some of us may know the name of the butterfly and whether the caterpillar is really related.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The plants were bought at one of the stalls during Putrajaya Flower Show, last year. We put them in two clay pots. The plants survived through the period when we were away for one and a half month last year. Now they are fruiting once again. The berries go through the various stages; green, red and black colour. They are quite tasty! I am thinking of making mulberry jam, but I need to have more berries. And that ask for the plants to be propagated into more pots or on the ground. I heard, this plant can grow through cuttings.

Monday, February 15, 2010

The plant has been with us for a year, growing healthily but without sign that it is going to bloom until this week. There is swan like stalks shooting out, with the bud lazily swaying and drooping...... almost like swan head. The stalks are long, about the right proportion of a swan neck. I am trying to imagine the look and the colour when the bud opens up....I visualize that the stalks will straighten up bringing along the flowers to face the sky. I am guessing the colour of the blooms to be deep reddish purple... Huh.

I don't know the name of the orchid. Is it really an orchid to begin with?...

Sunday, February 14, 2010

We went out to the centre of Putrajaya. The place is Putrajaya Square, overlooking the Prime Minister Office. Putrajaya Mosque was a little bit to the left. There was this nice looking telephone booth, red body and a black handset with a bold red hello . I sensed Bilbo was missing home terribly, but too bad he had completely forgotten the number.

This warning signboard was at the fence of a restricted area. The message was meant to be read in any of the 4 languages; English, Chinese, Indian, and Malay. Malaysia is really multilingual and multicultural. I guess we have to continue living that way, be accommodating and respect each other to live happily and peacefully.